KC Chapel Choir pioneer Barry Davies remembered in US

The Reverend Dr Barry Davies, the beloved Kingston College Chapel Choir director for more than a decade, beginning in the mid-1950s, has died.

A long-standing pillar of musical and spiritual life in Atlanta, Georgia, and Florida, both in the United States (US), Davies passed away peacefully at home in Palm Coast, Florida, on June 1 – mere days after celebrating his 96th birthday on May 29.

He is being celebrated for his wide-ranging talents and generous heart.

Davies wore many hats over the course of what was, by every account, a remarkable life as teacher, choir director, radio and television host (including the beloved Children’s Corner), music critic, Jamaica School of Music administrator, and ultimately, Presbyterian minister.

Born in 1929 in Dudley, Worcestershire, England, Barry Davies began life in the industrial Midlands but followed a lifelong calling that took him across continents, cultures, and communities.

His years in the West Indies – mostly Jamaica, but also several of the Bahamian ‘family islands’ after leaving Jamaica in 1976 – formed the second chapter of his life. Not only did he build musical legacies, but also met and married his beloved Jamaica-born wife, Laodice Dooley, who predeceased him. Together they had shared over 40 years of marriage rooted in love, music, and faith. Davies was father to four children and had three grandchildren.

Remembered by most as co-host of Children’s Corner with Erica Allen, he worked in Jamaica as a teacher, a musician, the concert choir director at Kingston College, a radio and television producer and presenter, a music critic, and an administrator as the director of the Jamaica School of Music.

As the director of the Kingston College Chapel Choir in Jamaica from 1956 to 1967, during the tenure of Bishop Percival Gibson, he transformed the choir into a nationally respected concert choir – the first of its kind among Jamaican high schools performing across the island. Under his charge, the KC Choir produced public recordings and became the first choir in the West Indies to become a St Nicholas Guild Choir of the Royal School of Church Music.

SPACE FOR NEW ARRIVALS

Arriving in Atlanta in 1979, Davies set up a weekly evening service for newly arrived Jamaicans who had not yet joined a church. He would remain in constant demand to make music for Jamaican community functions, and has preached at two of the Independence services as well as at the memorial service following the death of former Prime Minister Michael Manley.

He helped the KC Old Boys Association’s Atlanta chapter for a number of years, while at the Presbyterian church he once pastored.

Davies completed seminary at Columbia Theological Seminary, was ordained and served in numerous capacities, including as parish associate and organist at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Stone Mountain, Georgia. Even after retiring from formal ministry, he stayed active in Atlanta’s Jamaican community and later the Palm Coast community in Florida, offering spiritual and musical guidance and officiating at major community events.

Asked how he ended up in the ministry, Davies once said, “It had been in my blood since I first heard missionaries visiting my church when I was a young boy.”

Although he had planned to go to seminary after his first degree, he lost his faith and became a “humanist agnostic” for 30 years.

“Faith returned at age 50 – as did my call to ministry,” he explained. So he came to the US to attend seminary and become qualified as a Presbyterian minister.

In keeping with the reverend’s wishes, there will be no religious or memorial services. However, friends are invited to gather informally in his memory – perhaps over a beer or two – to share stories, laughter, and the music that shaped his life. A ‘Celebration of Life’ video will be shared with loved ones in due course.